Anybody else affected by their hospital’s visiting rules?
My niece is in hospital following a serious RTA and nobody is allowed to visit her for 10 days “due to covid” even her partner is only allowed to leave clothes for her at reception! He doesn’t have covid and is fully vaccinated. Why does he have to wait 10 days? What has 10 days got to do with anything?
My SIL was in hospital last autumn and that hospital would not allow any visitors for 2 weeks then they had to take a lateral flow test and wear a mask in the hospital. She was very ill and by the time her husband was allowed to see her she was in a dreadful mental state as well as physical.
He duly waited two weeks, did his LFT and took his mask. Got to the ward and nobody asked him about his test results and a nurse said “you don’t need to wear a mask in here.” He was speechless. Sadly my SIL died just 2 days later. Not from covid I might add.
When I was in Hospital 3 weeks ago, my Husband was not allowed to visit me, or even on the day I was admitted to Hospital, my husband had to go home and leave me there in a wheelchair, and this was a Private hospital.
When my husband was in hospital recently I wasn’t allowed to see him. He was on critical care too. I was furious at the time and very upset. To be honest when I think back my visiting could have put him at huge risk as his immune system was at his lowest so maybe it was a good thing. He has no spleen now which has made his immune system extremely vulnerable
But if you were tested and clear of covid what threat would you have been to your husband? I am sure nobody would object to being tested in order to see their loved one.
True, I don’t know then, all I know is I was very upset, frustrated and angry at the time. It was horrendous. I’m interested to see if anyone has a reason why we aren’t permitted if we are tested negative.
It’s horrible for the patient. I was taken in as an emergency (not Covid) in August 2020 and the hospital was full of Covid
We were allowed one visitor but I wouldn’t let anyone come in because I was terrified they would catch Covid visiting me and if it was my time to die I wanted to do it knowing they were safe and well
It’s incredibly lonely and you feel detached and isolated. They’d drop me off care packages at reception and phone, text and email once I was up to it
I don’t know why her husband isn’t allowed in now but I’m guessing it’s because although he’s vaccinated he could still bring it in and she’s too ill to handle Covid as well?
My guess is that the 10 days is how long they think it will take her to get strong enough to survive Covid should she get it
No, it’s not just her. It is for all patients on all wards.
If you ask anything you are just told it is hospital rules which is what they also told my BIL in a different hospital and he could have had two weeks with his wife before she died, who died 2 days after he was allowed in!
The only exceptions are visitors to people on end of life care, people with learning difficulties or autism and a couple of other categories. Still makes no sense to me because they could still take covid in.
I think if you have proof of a negative LF test then you should be allowed in.
I’m sorry to hear you’ve been so ill and I hope things have stabilised a bit
That was how I felt about visits when I was in.
Yes, it was lonely and I did think I might die alone, but it was when Covid was at it’s peak, there were wards full of people dying from it and there was no way I was going to expose my husband and children to that risk
And knowing they were safe at home, and the emails, texts and phone calls and care packages, brought me more comfort than a visit would have done
But that’s always the case OGF, Covid or not. At least with LF tests you know whether or not you are carrying an infection. Prior to covid people could have been carrying chicken pox, flu, throat infections in fact anything into hospitals and nobody would be any the wiser.
You can carry covid around for three or four days before a Lateral Flow Test will pick it up Flowerpower. Unfortunately, LF tests do not pick up the other infections you mentioned. However, If you care about someone in hospital who are very ill with a compromised immune system, personally, I would isolate for ten days (as is suggested) because by then most infections would have become apparent.
Precisely my point! You could be carrying in ANY infectious disease to hospital …….at least you can be tested for covid. So if you can provide a negative lateral flow test result on the day you visit then IMO you should be allowed in.
Spoke to my nieces partner tonight and he can finally go in and visit her on Monday, that will be the 10 days up.
The reason the hospital say they are doing this is so the staff don’t catch covid and then there won’t be enough staff to treat patients. My argument is they could catch covid just going shopping or to the pub! Surely the sensible thing would be to ask people to take a LF test on the day they are visiting.
